Greatest Day
by atomish
Summary: Everyday is the greatest when I'm with you. I can't wait for tomorrow. I will see you then. But I don't want to say good-bye just yet. For Mello and Matt because this is their Greatest Day. "Today, Smashing Pumpkins"
1. Yesterday

**Yesterday is the greatest day I've ever known**

_The sky was as blue as Mello's eyes _

"Look at this, Mello," Matt waved at him from his spot on his back, his face tilted to the clouds. "It looks like a Tetris piece."

Mello looked up from the book in his lap and let Matt drag him down onto the ground beside him.

"Do you see it?" Matt whispered, a grin underlining his words. And Mello blinked, searching for what Matt saw but finding nothing.

"No," He replied honestly and Matt laughed out loud, making harmony with the birds' songs.

_and the canaries in the trees as yellow as his hair._

"That's okay," Matt said, tilting his head so it rested on Mello's shoulders even though it didn't need its support. Matt didn't need anything; he just wanted a lot of things.

"Are you sure?" Mello asked, his brows furrowing together as he glanced at the top of Matt's head, so warm against his cheek.

"No," Matt said, lifting his head and staring at Mello. "I'm never sure about anything when I'm with you and I'm sure about that."

His hand found Mello's and he weaved their fingers together, holding him down to earth so he wouldn't float away.

_The grass was as green as Matt's eyes _

"I'm never going to let you go," Matt proclaimed, a smile playing on his lips so it made it seem like a joke but Mello would be a fool to think that.

"But what if I die?" Mello asked, his tone as light as sunshine but they both knew that it was inevitable and Matt wasn't an idiot.

"I'll die, too, then," And this time, there were no smiles or tones as light as sunshine because it was only the truth.

_and the blood as red as his hair._


	2. Today

**Today is the greatest day I've ever known**

_Their memories fade like old Polaroid pictures_

"What are we dying for?" Matt asks as he stands there, a half empty pack of cigarettes in one hand and his keys in the other. Mello watch the little plastic Mario sway back and forth by Matt's fingers.

"Is this really the time to ask that?" Mello sighs in exasperation, running a hand through his messily cut hair. He reminds himself that he should never trust Matt with a pair of scissors when he remembers a day with too-blue skies and too-green grass.

And then he scowls because this is not the time to remember that either.

"Better late than never," Matt shrugs as he slips a cigarette in his mouth but doesn't reach for his lighter and the unlit smoke is suddenly all-too similar to a chewed-up lollipop stick in a small redhead's mouth.

And then he smiles because this was the only time to remember this.

_And their lips match like Tetris pieces._

"Stay safe," Matt lies as his lips brush against Mello's in a way that makes Mello believe him.

Even though he knows better to.

But Matt pulls away and smiles genuinely in a way that makes Mello want to grab him and never let him go.

Even though he knows he can't. Not now and not ever again.

So Mello pulls him back as Matt turns away and wraps his arms around the redhead so hard it hurts.

"You too," He whispers and Matt doesn't nod.

_Their skin is fragile and pale like a doll's_

They knew exactly what they were getting themselves into.

But they wouldn't turn back for anything. Not now and not ever.

And even as Mello watch the bullets dig themselves into Matt's porcelain flesh, he feels so guilty for expecting spidery cracks to spread across the skin.

The bullets broke Matt, and this time, Mello won't live to put the pieces back together.

"I'm sorry," was all he can say as he holds the silver rosary like he wanted to hold Matt. He said it once and he'll say it forever if it brought Matt back.

But they weren't little kids anymore, sitting around the common room on a lazy afternoon, playing with toy guns as if it wouldn't kill them.

As if forever wouldn't run out some day. As if that day wasn't today.

If Matt were sitting beside him at this moment, he'd tell Mello that "it's okay" but Matt was broken like the dusty old dolls in the attic and not sitting next to him right now.

So Mello can only hold his rosary because Matt is not here for him to hold.

_and their hands fit together like puzzle pieces._

Mello hopes that Near will see Matt's death and he hopes that Kira will be caught.

Because this was what they did it for and this is why his hand feels so empty without something to hold on to.

The shape of the cross was irregular in his palm and it digs into his skin in a way that does not feel right at all.

But it was the only thing he had left so he'll hang onto it like he wants to hang onto Matt.

_They died like superheroes_

Mello knows that Takada has a piece of the Death Note tucked into her lacy bra.

He knows that Yagami Light is Kira.

He knows that L didn't, _will not_ lose.

And he knows that Matt isn't dead. He just isn't living, either.

Neither of them are superheroes; far from it, really. But Mello only knew of superheroes as the pixelated figures in Matt's games and Matt only knew of Mello who did everything for the Kira case.

And those were heroes, in their mind.

So when his heart began to beat in a way that makes him feel like he can cry just this once, he thinks of the bullets digging into porcelain flesh and hair as red as blood and he smiles.

Because this is the end.

_But superheroes never die._


	3. Tomorrow

**Tomorrow is the greatest day I've ever known**

_The clouds will be as white as porcelain_

"When people die, they go to heaven," Mello had said once, a long time ago when the sky was still blue and the grass was still green.

Matt shakes his head as he let the smoke fog up his mind in a way that makes him forget to wonder what will happen next.

"When people die," He says, shaking red out of his eyes so he can see the orange. "They become stars."

_and the stars will be as yellow as the canaries in the trees._

"You're here," Matt says when Mello opens his eyes to see a world darker than if he squeezed his eyes shut and placed his hands over them. Like when he and Matt used to play hide-and-seek and when he was 'it', he shut his eyes tight and covered them with his palms and counted to ten.

But Matt isn't hiding this time.

"I guess I am here," Because it is only logical and his mind doesn't feel like making up something profound to use on Matt who quirks a smile at the blunt statement.

"But where's here?" He muses out loud, gripping the silver rims of his goggles and pulling them off entirely.

And when the orange isn't there anymore, he can see the yellow in a way that make him feel like this is all a game.

_The blood will fade like old memories_

"Is this the end?" Matt asks. It has been a while and he doesn't remember a lot of things like he used to.

Sitting back to back in a world that is darker than when they played hide-and-seek, everything doesn't matter much anymore.

"I guess," Mello shrugs, his spine feeling like a chain saw cutting open Matt's back so all his secrets will spill out onto the ground like his blood on the asphalt.

"You guess a lot of things now, Mello," Matt worries because does this mean that Mello is fading too?

"No," Mello shakes his head, his bright yellow hair so oddly out of place in the darkness, like a neon sign. "I'm just not sure about a lot of things right now."

_And they will break like dusty dolls forgotten in the attic._

"Me neither," Matt says and it makes Mello's heart begin to beat in way that makes him feel like he can cry just this once.

And he does because this is the only time he will.

The tears leave a trail of spidery cracks down his porcelain cheeks and they hurt in a way he knows Matt has felt before, maybe even feeling right now.

But like a doll, Matt's smiling face doesn't show that he is rotting from the inside out.

"Don't cry, Mello," Matt's voice is light and it reminds Mello of sunshine and he closes his eyes but all his memories are blurry with tears and all he can see is blood and smoke.

But like Matt, he smiles.

_Their hands will fit together better than puzzle pieces_

"I'm never going to let you go," Matt had said once, a long time ago when the air wasn't clouded with smoke and the asphalt wasn't stained with blood.

"Then don't let me go now," Mello says and he stands up. Matt looks up at him from and ground, his eyes as green as the grass used to be.

"No," He shakes his head, the bloody strands so bright in the darkness, like a neon sign. "I'd rather I go with you."

Then he stands up, a smile forming on his porcelain face as he weaves their fingers together.

And this time, there are no spidery cracks along his skin.

_because they will fit together better than Tetris pieces. _

Even death cannot stop them.

With their hands clasp together and their hair blowing into their faces, they run.

It doesn't matter that the darkness surrounding them was even worse than when they were alive to play hide-and-seek because this time, they are hiding together.

And no one will find them ever again.

So Mello holds Matt's hand harder so when he floated away, he will follow.

_Mello's hair is as yellow as the stars_

"Hey Mello," Matt says, tugging on Mello's arm.

"Yeah?"

"Do you see those two stars?" His free hand rises to point out what he sees and Mello follows to two stars shining so bright in the inky black sky, like neon signs.

"Yeah, I do," Mello nods because this time, he knows what Matt is talking about because they finally see the same thing.

"They're us," Matt whispers, his tone as light as the sunshine they used to see on a day with too-blue skies and too-green grass.

"I can tell," Mello says, his arms wrapping around Matt as he leaned close. Matt is finally here for him to hold now and he will never let him go.

Lying chest to chest in a world that is dark but with the sky full of stars suspending above them, it seems even brighter than any neon signs they can remember.

And through their porcelain skin pressing together, they can clearly hear the way they make each other's heart beat.

_and Matt's hair is as red as the blood rushing through their veins. _


End file.
